Aristes

You want ponderous cut-scenes? Play Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth. I'm enjoying it despite some of the most baffling decisions I've seen in a computer game. Once you realize it's a puzzle adventure game with some fps combat thrown in, it's got some real good qualities to it. As for the setting, I get you Maria. I had honestly thought that Bioware said they were doing something remarkable and new. It occurs to me that it's kind of remarkable for anyone to do something that isn't licensed. For that, I should give them some credit. On the other hand, I do get tired of that particular motif. The 'demi-humans' on the decline. The humans on the rise. Either it looks like the non humans are weak and pathetic or the humans are ugly brutes. Actually, it ends up looking like both much of the time. I liked some of the ideas in that Troika fantasy game I can't remember. Steampunk. Anyhow, the elves are actually younger. ...Or Shannara, where the other races are mutants except for humans and elves. I think it would be cool if there were one where the dwarves were the ancient race and humans were the young race. The dwarves basically run everything as an empire, which they conduct with brutal efficiency and well. Elves are actually mutated humans who have undergone some sort of magically expedited evolutionary process. They are long lived, quite fertile, and growing in number. They are so beautiful and durable that humans feel inferior and it's caused an epidemic of hopelessness among the human population. The dwarves feel threatened by this quickly growing evlish population and forge a tenuous alliance with humanity to subdue or even destroy the elves. Hell, let the player choose to play either a member of the dwarven alliance or one of the elves. Of course, I'm just jawin' here, so don't take that 'setting' too seriously. I'm just saying that there are more options than "humans rise and 'demi-humans' fall and then the humans and what's left of the non humans face the UBG."

So, this setting is different because the elves were smashed and enslaved... twice? I'd better read this thread again after I've had more than twenty minute's sleep and see if maybe I'm being too critical.

Ho Hum. Elves have their downfall, of course. At least the Dwarves don't appear to be on the decline... yet. Doesn't sound like a break from the norm that Bio touted as DA so far. I have to agree with my batty friend, tho. I like the sound of the combat. Even same ol' tactical combat sounds like fun to me.

Oooohhhh That explains a lot, HK.

I think evil is a perfectly legitimate term for characters within the work. I also see it as a perfectly legitimate way for players to see PC and NPC interactions. I don't think it's a legitimate way for the design team to construe our actions. Of course, with crappy alignment/morality rules that are part of the ruleset, such as in DnD and SW, what can the design team do. They can't help but make decisions about the morality of PC actions. It's part of the license and they will use it. It's like that thing with George Ziets that someone posted a long time ago. The designer might not like using alignment, but it's part of the system and the design team is compelled to make use of it. If Dragon Age can refrain from trying to quantify and qualify the innate morality of player decisions, the game and the player can take care of that aspect themselves. The designers can assess player morality from the point of view of the NPCs. The player can understand his reasoning, moral or otherwise, from his own point of view.

Naw, you need to understand, slug, Harry Potter is too emo for stone col' killahs like the folks around here. Man, they need somethin' hard, like they are. Ya know? Seriously, I had the first Harry Potter book in a dentist's office once and he asked what I was reading. I said Harry Potter and he responded with a comment about how reading had gone downhill over the years. I said it had served very well to draw a lot of children into the world of literature. When he was done, I handed the book to him and asked him to read a bit. It was an Attic Greek translation. Never went to that dentist again. I don't know what it is, but I've had doctors and dentists comment on the books I read a lot. Not always rude. It's probably just a way to chat with a patient, I guess. I was reading a John Adams biography a while back and the doctor talked with me for so long about the book, I had to call back with the ISBN for the McCullough biography. It's one of the more readable works and it's only one book as opposed to a set of volumes.

This is such an odd and specific request. I'm not making fun of you, but I'm curious, are there games that have made a different button the fire button for PS3? It seems like if it's such a convention, they would do it that way anyhow. I guess it never hurts to make sure, though.

@ Wombat: I think the Witcher did a fine job with the story, but the highlight certainly wasn't the racist humans idea. In fact, as social commentary, I thought it pretty much sucked. On the other hand, the story did work and it was fun. The Witcher also had other elements that switched things around enough to make it fun. In fact, Fio and Gorth suggested it and I purchased it, played it, and enjoyed it greatly. What gets me is that the Witcher probably broke with the staid fantasy setting far more than Dragon Age will. Of course, I can't be certain until they release it, but that's my personal take as that's been my personal experience. Doesn't mean I won't get it. There's a pretty even chance I'll buy the title depending on what I hear from folks around this place. I've been pretty happy with the suggestions I've gotten so far.

Is it the same lame setup? Humans are more fertile/expansionistic/brutal/etc. Elves and dwarves are in decline. We have to decide whether to side with the human racists or with elvish treehuggers or some lame crap. Please tell me it isn't completely rehash.

hahaha Sorry, on topic: hahaha Now for more story info... if we haven't pissed off the devs too much.

Hehehe What a jerk. I hate all in game romances. Weeeeeeelllllllll maybe not The Nameless One and Deionarra. Does that count?

Classical Greek and Latin make wide use of passive voice. Classical Greek also uses middle voice. In fact, it literally changes the meaning of verbs. For example, Peitho (active) is I persuade whereas Peithomai (middle) means I obey. Kind of like, I persuade myself to do something. I detest the way modern English approaches passive voice because there are times you don't want the subject of the sentence to be actor because of your specific choice of verb. This is especially true in English where word order reigns supreme and verb choices carry nuanced meanings. You might want the artist to be the first thing the reader sees, but you want the impact of that binding as well. It's also true that there is meaning in the subject being acted upon. It makes the scientist much more sympathetic if he's helpless before petty morality. Hey, I'm just a guy who likes to read, but some of the prohibitions we place on ourselves really chap my hide. Sure, passive voice can become boring, and so we should be judicious in its use,but that doesn't mean we should throw it over entirely.

No offense to Fryda Wolff, but my wife might be the one to answer the door. How about this instead? I don't give a damn about signed copies or the like. I just want to have a extra goodies in-game. I might buy the collector's edition, but they're not really worth the money in any real way. If you're sentimental and enjoy them, fine, but there's usually nothing worth while in them that you can't get otherwise. I mean... *shrug* notepads and the like? I've been lurking around here for a while and I usually don't have much to say, but I can't see what they'd put in the CE that would really make it valuable. I might buy one to support Obsidian, but I'm not buying one because I think it has any real lasting value beyond the regular box. ...And if I buy one to support Obsidian, why not just buy a regular one and send them a check for the difference? haha Seriously, though, I guess it wouldn't hurt to get the cheap collectibles.

Awesome, bro! That's sweet. I went to my wife's family for fathers' day. We've been married for over 13 years and he still doesn't give his consent. haha

Hey, rat bastards, I'm Catholic. I can booze it up guilt free. Damn bunch of hippies, pagans, and drunk norsemen (yeah, like that's not redundant). No need to let your sloppy beer brawling ways harsh my buzz. ...And there was fire roasted boar before Christianity too, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to partake.

Naw, I think FO3 got non-linear right until the end, which was just sucky. I think the worst part of the game was the end, and that ending is what killed the non-linearity for me. The perception is king. That's what non-linearity is, brothers. It's the perception of freedom. If you're going to blow your non-linear wad by presenting a two choice ending, like FO3 did, then at least make the two questions sensible! Hey, I'm a non-abashed fan. I just think the ending sucked. Specifically, I think the two choice ending and the flash forward to the consequences that followed. I liked the fact that the last boss wasn't some mostrously tough ugly. I liked the fact that we managed to complete something. I liked the fact that we could even avoid combat if we had enough speech skill. I just thought that the way Bethesda presented it was lackluster.

If I understand Oner right, the main questline is linear, even if it allows you some leeway in how you approach it. What the main quests in FO1 and 2 do better is give the illusion of non-linearity, which FO3 does very well until the choice at the end. Like Wombat says, all fiction is illusion. That doesn't mean it can't be meaningful on a personal level or even convey truths about our existence. Just means that the difference between Zork and Fallout is the how well the design team disguises the fact that we're only allowed to do what they permit us to do in the first place. I'm a huge Zork fan, by the way.

Happy Solstice from your Catholic friend! Stonehenge would have been a sight to see with all those folks there. Usually it's got that steady line of folks walking around it. I can just imagine having folks celebrating and partying in the area. Hey, I think it's good to put it use for celebrating. Probably more of what it was meant to be in the first place.

It took me about ten tries to get through that damned attack of the fisherman scene in Cthulu. I was actually quite irritated because I didn't understand everything going on. I finally made it to a safe area but thought I was still running. Anyhow, I was beat up pretty bad when I got there so I tried to do it again. I went to a walkthrough and found out one tiny thing I could have done. I did it and made it without a single wound. I don't know if I like that aspect or not. On one hand, I find the idea irritating. On the other hand, it does make the game kind of like an adventure/fps hybrid, which could be interesting.

I actually liked the father. I didn't even mind the idea that What did irritate me, other than the typically shallow way that the game moved the player to the completion of the idea of sacrifice, was specifically the very ending. CRPGs are shallow. Most of the time, that's fine. I'm down with shallow sometimes. After all, it takes time to get into deep ideas and then you're stuck swimming around in them for a while. However, the final bit should have been poignant. It wasn't. Far worse than being trite, it simply didn't make sense in any sort of defensible way. Forcing me to do something at the last minute is okayish, I guess. Forcing me to do something stupid because that's the way the ending needs to be is something different. Yeah, maybe choice in CRPGs is illusory, but the FO3 ending didn't even have the illusion of choice. With all that said, I agree with Oner. I thought the family photo at the end was poignant. I also thought that Liam Neeson did a good job as the father. For all the complaints I've heard in this thread, the father NPC wasn't badly done, even if the writing for the father was fairly lackluster. Certainly not cringeworthy plugging my ears bad writing I've seen in some games, but I wouldn't give it any prizes.

That happens to me a lot too. You would be surprised at how many folks read your posts here but don't say anything. I used to lurk a lot and read folks posts without responding. EDIT: Sorry, a bit out of it. I'm playing WoW with friends and Call of Cthulu alone. Wrath's thread inspired me.

The ending was particularly weak.

Oh, no. I didn't like every single thing in FO3. In fact, I tend to agree with the lists detractors make. I guess the biggest difference is that I tended to be able to overlook the bad stuff more than some other folks. Hell, I agree with all sorts of what Crashgirl says and yet my conclusions are way different. No, my comments tend to come across more pointed than I intend them. On the other hand, no one can doubt my pointed comments at all! haha Seriously, though, I don't need a radio. I would, however, like a good assortment of tunes built into the game. The radio station supplied that. As for the other inconsistencies, the one that irritated me the most is entirely irrational on my part. I hated the fact that an organization as tight as Rivet City didn't clean crap out of the hallways in order to ensure the safety of the citizens. What, picking up crap and ditching it or storing it for use as scrap metal requires advanced technology? What the hell?

I also get a bad vibe from Dragon Age. On the other hand, I tend to wait to purchase most games these days. There's a good chance that I'll pick up the title as long as I get some good word on it. I stopped buying NWN1 expansions a long time ago and I ended up passing over SoZ, even though I really enjoyed MotB. I dunno. I get the same vibe from DA, even though it's supposed to be different. Makes it a tough but not impossible sale for me.

Like VATS, you could turn off the radio if you wanted. I guess I'm one of those rare players who actually liked the game. I know that there must have been one or two of us, at least. I liked the radio. I even liked Three Dog. For the most part, my only problem with Three Dog is that the banter reached the end and just looped around. So you could say that I got bored with his chatter and just wanted the music. When I wanted to stealth, I just turned off the radio on my pip-boy. For folks who hated the radio, that works really well. I mean, this isn't like refraining from using all your skill points at level up. You didn't need to listen to the radio to finish the game and so it was entirely optional. There is nothing artificial about choosing to toggle the radio. Of all the beefs, saying you hated having the radio on makes the least sense to me. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the music. I even liked Three Dog for the most part, even though I ended up tuning him out. So, I hope they have some way to catch some good oldies in NV. If they don't, it won't be all that bad. I can understand the idea of wandering the silent waste in isolation. Fine. Having a wide assortment of oldies is also very nice. For my part, I think the biggest problem with the radio is that the choice was between Three Dog, who had 'I'm the rebellious good guy' pasted on his forehead and the 'eeeeeevvviiiiiiiiiil' enclave radio. I think they could have put better variety on the enclave radio and made it a real choice. Of course, some folks probably LURVE marches, so they'd disagree with me.